The majority ruling that became a dissent

Close readers of the Supreme Court ruling on health care reform have begun to notice something really interesting in the dissent by four of the five conservatives on the court: it makes more than a dozen references to a concurring opinion as a dissent.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote her own view of the case, which is a "concurring opinion" since she voted with the majority, consisting of Chief Justice John Roberts and the four liberal justices including herself. But the dissent keeps referring to "Justice Ginsburg's dissent."

This means the dissent was, at some point, on the way to being the majority opinion, apparently even when it was on the way to the printer. If it had remained so, health reform would have been struck down, as many expected to happen.

Chief Justice Roberts, therefore, must have switched votes at the last minute.

No one at the court has said this, or is likely to say this, and there might be an alternate explanation, but I haven't been able to think of one.